WEST COAST PREMIERE
JFI Completion Grant Awardee
A CRIME ON THE BAYOU is the story of Gary Duncan, a Black teenager from Plaquemines Parish, a swampy strip of land south of New Orleans. In 1966, Duncan tries to break up an argument between white and Black teenagers outside a newly integrated school. He gently lays his hand on a white boy’s arm. The boy recoils like a snake. That night, police burst into Duncan’s trailer and arrest him for assault on a minor. A young Jewish attorney, Richard Sobol, leaves his prestigious D.C. firm to volunteer in New Orleans. With his help, Duncan bravely stands up to the District Attorney, challenging his unfair arrest. Their fight goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and their lifelong friendship is forged.
Geoblocked to California
Director Nancy Buirski
NANCY BUIRSKI is currently directing, producing and writing A CRIME ON THE BAYOU. She was the Director/Producer/Writer of THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR (2017) that had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American Premiere at the New York Film Festival. It was awarded the prestigious Human Rights Nights Special Prize for Human Rights at the 74° Venice Biennale, was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Best Documentary Film and a Peabody Award. Numerous festivals in U.S and abroad; repped by The Orchard, TV broadcast on Starz. She is Director/Producer/Writer of the Oscar shortlisted, Peabody and Emmy Award-winning THE LOVING STORY (2011; HBO) and a Producer of LOVING by Jeff Nichols. Numerous festivals and awards. A CRIME ON THE BAYOU (dev. HBO) with THE LOVING STORY and THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR form a documentary trilogy addressing historic roots of racism and the brave voices who fought against it. Buirski founded and ran the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival from 1997 to 2008. She is a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the author and photographer of EARTH ANGELS: MIGRANT CHILDREN IN AMERICA. Prior to her work in film she was the Foreign Picture Editor at The New York Times and an editor at Magnum Photos.